This study examines sinmuyong, a core asset of Korean modern dance, from the perspective of contemporary intangible heritage discourse and derives practical tasks for enhancing its cultural heritage value and status. To this end, the study reviews the paradigm shift in cultural heritage concerning modern arts and and substantiates the historical transmission lineage and the tangible existence of works in sinmuyong through literature research and case analysis. The findings confirm that sinmuyong is the product of the an autonomous aesthetics that led to the modern change of tradition and that it sufficiently meets the requirements of “living heritage” through an established transmission lineage and identifiable repertoire.. This study is significant in broadening the horizon of Korean dance heritage by defining sinmuyong as an ongoing, living heritage.

This study analyzed traditional dance scenes in historical dramas and related internet articles in order to understand their contents and characteristics, assuming that contemporary media discourse has contributed to the production of traditional dance images. The subjects of the study are the traditional dance scenes from eight historical TV dramas, which were broadcasted in 2016: , , , , , , , and related articles posted on the news category of the portal website Naver. The study showed that the image of a traditional dance appearing in the traditional dance scenes was portrayed as a beautiful, mysterious, or powerful means of tempting viewers. Most of young, female main actors played the dancers, and the close-up shots focused on the performers' faces. The types of traditional dances exposed to the dramas and the appearance of their movements were not appropriate for the historical conditions, such as the background of the dramas or the status of the characters. In addition, the fact that the gender and status of the performers were confined to female dancers or female shamans could not go beyond the historical fact at all. In the content analysis of the internet articles, it was found that the names of traditional dances were not based on professional knowledge. It was also found that, when describing traditional dances and performers, similar expressions were used despite the different types of dances and narrative situations in each scene. This is related to the fact that the contents of the internet articles were provided by the agency of the female entertainers who played the actors and filtered through the portal site, rather than reflecting the intention of the drama's producer or entertainment media reporters. In other words, the internet articles promoting the traditional dance scenes were written as a means to increase the popularity of entertainers. Therefore, it should be noted that this bears many problems when propagated to the public as a traditional dance discourse. This study is significant, revealing the image of “dance”, “dancer”, and “dancing woman” in and out of the dance system by revealing the image of traditional dance produced by contemporary media and media discourse. Finally, it is hoped that this study can contribute to generalizing the images related to dance and preventing the excessive prejudice over dance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of discourse act that was unfolded in the process of modern Korean dance securing its significance as performing arts. In Korea, the first-half of the twentieth century witnessed the formation of new culture based on a clash between modern Western civilization that was accepted and the autogenous modern consciousness. The appearance of newspapers, in particular, provided ample opportunities for the reading public to participate in the society and gave birth to the modern consciousness of sharing one's ideas with others. This happened in the field of dance from various perspectives including reviews in the criticism format after the appreciation of dance performances, critiques, dance theories, and new ideas of the traditional dance. There was no establishment of proper dance criticism in Korea during the modern period, however there were meaningful acts to create dance discourses from diverse perspectives and enhance the aesthetic modernity of the public.